Surprising Ways to Improve Your Team’s Productivity

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Business success depends on team work. Improve your business productivity by managing your team like...

Business success depends on team work. Improve your business productivity by managing your team like a super coach. Got a workforce that isn’t measuring up to your expectations?
Concerned that your employees are wasting time on the company clock and
holding your entire company back from meeting its overall goals?If so, you may have a productivity issue!

Obviously, low productivity within an organization can stem from a
number of different causative factors – with different sets of workers
facing different disincentives to get their work done. However, the
solutions to your productivity problems may be simpler than you expect.
Consider any of the following surprising ways to improve overall output
and drive business success:

Idea #1 – Give workers more responsibility

If the thought of encouraging productivity amongst your employees by
adding more to their workload seems counterintuitive, you might be
surprised to find that employees often view being given additional
responsibilities as an indication that they’re trusted and relied upon
by their organizations.Think about it… If you’re an employee who’s being constantly passed
over for exciting projects and higher levels of responsibility, it’s
natural to assume that this is occurring because your company doesn’t
believe you’ll do a good job. And when this is the case, both your
morale and your willingness to commit to the tasks you have been
assigned goes down – resulting in lower overall productivity.

So if you want your workers to do a better job, give them some
measure of responsibility over project success. Start small, and allow
employees to both build trust with you and increase their overall level
of productivity and satisfaction with your organization.

Idea #2 – Improve your bosses

In addition, be aware that it isn’t always the failing of your
employees if you see a decrease in employees. In many cases, it’s their
bosses who are managing ineffectively – leading to underutilized
workers focusing their time on the wrong objectives.

Interestingly enough, research conducted by the National Bureau of
Economic Research demonstrated that improving the caliber of the bosses
supervising a team improved the group’s productivity to the same degree
as adding another employee in some cases. According to the agency’s working paper:

“Replacing a boss who is in the lower 10% of boss
quality with one who is in the upper 10% of boss quality increases a
team’s total output by about the same amount as would adding one worker
to a nine member team.”

So if your organization is struggling to maintain productivity, it
might not be unmotivated employees that deserve the majority of your
attention. In some cases, improving your bosses’ performance through
additional training exercises and learning opportunities could make all
the difference your organization needs.

Idea #3 – Say a personal “Thank you”

Finally, be aware that many employers have a very warped view of what
motivates their employees to perform to the best of their abilities. The employers surveyed in the research gathered by Mindflash placed
the following ten workplace benefits in the following order, based on
the items they believed mattered most to their workers:

Good wages

Job security

Promotion/growth opportunities

Good working conditions

Interesting work

Personal loyalty to workers

Tactful discipline

Full appreciation for work done

Sympathetic help with personal problems

Feeling “in” on things

However, when employees were asked to prioritize the same list of
office perks from most to least desirable, their results were much
different:

Full appreciation for work done

Feeling “in” on things

Sympathetic help on personal problems

Job security

Good wages

Interesting work

Promotion/growth opportunities

Personal loyalty to workers

Good working conditions

Tactful discipline

Although it might be surprising to see employees value appreciation
for their hard work over higher salaries, greater job security and
better growth opportunities, anyone who’s worked in a thankless,
unappreciative environment knows how critical proper feedback can be to
building employee morale.

With this in mind, consider that the low levels of productivity
you’re observing might be occurring due to the perception that employee
contributions aren’t being recognized. Really, how motivated would you
be to work hard if you were never called out or thanked for your
dedication?

As such, one simple solution to many productivity issues is to start
recognizing employees for their contributions. You don’t need to make a
big production out of it and you don’t need to reward your productive
employees with a financial incentive or other prize. Instead, a simple,
heartfelt “thank you” from a boss or manager will go a long way towards
encouraging employees to be more productive in the future.

Do you have any other recommendations on how you’ve improved
productivity within your own organization? If so, share your thoughts
in the comments section below!